The present invention relates to mounting clamps and pertains particularly to an improved pole mounting clamp for mounting medical devices and the like to vertical support poles.
Intravenous therapy is widely and extensively used at bedside in hospitals and clinics. A major piece of equipment used in such therapy is the IV pole, which is a vertically extending cylindrical pole supported on a wheeled base to make it portable. The IV pole serves as a support stand for IV bags or reservoirs and associated or related equipment. Many other related medical articles, such as support structures for IV tubes, needles, needle caps and other items, are detachably secured to the pole by means of clamps.
The typical mounting clamp that is currently used has a hook like portion that extends around the pole, with an opposing hand screw that screws into tight engagement with the opposite side of the pole. These clamps have many drawbacks. Among these drawbacks are that they are bulky, cumbersome and difficult to attach and detach without the use of both hands. Another drawback is that they are expensive to manufacture.
One recently developed item for attachment to an IV pole is a needle cap or sheath holder, such as covered in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,793, issued Apr. 9, 1991, to Richard A. Shillington, co-inventor herein. The needle cap holder is detachably attached to a pole by means of an elastic clip or clamp. The needle cap or sheath holder is a passive holder designed to reduce the incidence of needle pricking of the user's hands when re-capping needles. It is desirable to have these conveniently available where needles are used.
We have developed a mounting clamp that can be attached and detached to different size support poles and holds any number of different articles to the pole.